In this lesson, you’re going to learn to say dates, months, and years in Brazilian Portuguese. I’m going to give many examples and teach everything that you need to know to be able to speak naturally about dates in your day-to-day life.
👉 This lesson includes a free worksheet with the summary of the lesson, many example sentences and exercises for you to practice. Click here to download your free worksheet.
How to say a full date in Portuguese
Let’s start by talking about how to say a full date with day, month, and year.
How would you answer the question:
Que dia é hoje? (What day is it today?)
For example, this video is being published on April second, twenty twenty-six.
Hoje é dia dois de abril de dois mil e vinte e seis. (Today is April second, twenty twenty-six.)
In Brazil, we say and write dates in this order: day, month, and year.
Note that when we say a full date, we should use the preposition “de” to connect the day to the month and the month to the year.
Dois de abril de dois mil e vinte e seis. (April second, twenty twenty-six.)
Now let’s study separately how to say the day, month, and year.
How to answer the question: “Que dia é hoje?”
Normally, when someone asks “Que dia é hoje?” (What day is it today?), you don’t need to say a full date. You just need to say the day, right?
For example:
Que dia é hoje? (What day is it today?)
Hoje é dia dois. (Today is the second.)
Amanhã é dia três. (Tomorrow is the third.)
In this case, we don’t need to say the month because it’s implied that we’re referring to the current month, the month of April.
Note that to say the day of the month, we use the word “dia” plus the cardinal number. In Portuguese, we don’t use ordinal numbers to say dates. The only exception is the first day of the month.
For example:
Primeiro de abril (April first)
Dois de abril (April second)
Três de abril (April third)
Dez de abril (April tenth)
And so on.
For example, we don’t say:
Eu vou viajar no “vigésimo primeiro” dia de maio. (I’m going to travel on the twenty-first day of May.)
It sounds very strange. We say:
Eu vou viajar no dia vinte e um de maio. (I’m going to travel on May twenty-first.)
Another important detail: in Portuguese, we don’t use an article before the number, as is used in some languages.
For example, we don’t say:
Eu vou viajar “o” vinte de maio. (I’m going to travel on “the” May twentieth.)
It sounds strange. We say:
Eu vou viajar no dia vinte de maio. (I’m going to travel on May twentieth.)
In this type of sentence, the word “no” is optional. I could say:
Eu vou viajar dia vinte de maio (I’m going to travel May twentieth) or
Eu vou viajar no dia vinte de maio. (I’m going to travel on May twentieth.)
How to talk about the months of the year in Portuguese
First, let’s review how to say the name of each month:
Janeiro (January)
Fevereiro (February)
Março (March)
Abril (April)
Maio (May)
Junho (June)
Julho (July)
Agosto (August)
Setembro (September)
Outubro (October)
Novembro (November)
Dezembro (December)
Now let’s see some common sentences with the months of the year.
For example, when we want to say which month we are in at the moment, we use the verb “estar” (be) and the preposition “em” (in):
Já estamos em abril. (We are already in April.)
We can also say “no mês de” (in the month of):
Estamos no mês de abril. (We are in the month of April.)
Now let’s see examples in the future:
Vou viajar ao Brasil em maio. (I’m going to travel to Brazil in May.)
Vou viajar ao Brasil no mês de maio. (I’m going to travel to Brazil in the month of May.)
Vou viajar ao Brasil no dia vinte de maio. (I’m going to travel to Brazil on May twentieth.)
Now let’s see examples in the past:
Eu viajei ao Brasil em janeiro. (I traveled to Brazil in January.)
Eu viajei ao Brasil no mês de janeiro. (I traveled to Brazil in the month of January.)
Eu viajei ao Brasil no dia dez de janeiro. (I traveled to Brazil on January tenth.)
How to say when your birthday is
I’m going to tell you when my birthday is.
We can say just the month:
Meu aniversário é em junho. (My birthday is in June.)
Meu aniversário é no mês de junho. (My birthday is in the month of June.)
Or we can say the day and the month:
Meu aniversário é no dia vinte e cinco de junho. (My birthday is on June twenty-fifth.)
Note that the months should be written with lowercase initials in Portuguese, unless they are at the beginning of a sentence.
How to say years in Portuguese
Em que ano estamos agora? (What year are we in now?)
To say the year, we normally use the preposition “em” + the year or the phrase “no ano de” + the year. For example:
Estamos em dois mil e vinte e seis. (We are in twenty twenty-six.)
Estamos no ano de dois mil e vinte e seis. (We are in the year of twenty twenty-six.)
Note that we always say the full year:
Dois mil e vinte e seis. (two thousand twenty-six.)
In English, it’s possible to say the year in tens: 2026 (twenty twenty-six).
Or in hundreds: 1800 (eighteen hundred).
In Portuguese, this is not possible. We always say the full number.
Now let’s see how to say a sentence in the future:
Carlos vai se formar em dois mil e vinte e oito. (Carlos is going to graduate in twenty twenty-eight.)
Carlos vai se formar no ano de dois mil e vinte e oito. (Carlos is going to graduate in the year of twenty twenty-eight.)
Now let’s see examples in the past:
Eu me mudei para os Estados Unidos em dois mil e treze. (I moved to the United States in twenty thirteen.)
Eu me mudei para os Estados Unidos no ano de dois mil e treze. (I moved to the United States in the year of twenty thirteen.)
In this lesson, I didn’t cover all the numbers, but I already made three lessons about everything that you need to know about numbers.
Click here to study the numbers from 0 to 100.
Click here to study the numbers from 101 to 1 billion.
Click here to study ordinal numbers.
Free worksheet!
👉 This lesson includes a free worksheet with the summary of the lesson, many example sentences and exercises for you to practice. Click here to download your free worksheet.
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